Touch Screen Device, Touch Screen Display Device Using the Same, and Driving Method Thereof

ABSTRACT

Disclosed is a touch screen device. The touch screen device includes a touch screen panel configured to include a plurality of driving electrodes, which are disposed in parallel in a first direction, and a plurality of sensing electrodes which are disposed in parallel in a second direction, and a touch circuit unit configured to, when a touch type of a previous touch sensing period is a finger touch, sequentially apply a driving pulse to a plurality of second driving electrodes but not to a plurality of first driving electrodes among the plurality of driving electrodes, and receive a plurality of sensing signals based on the driving pulse from the plurality of sensing electrodes.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation application of U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 14/551,550, filed on Nov. 24, 2014, which claimspriority from and the benefit of Korean Patent Application No.10-2013-0169110 filed on Dec. 31, 2013, which are hereby incorporated byreference as if fully set forth herein.

BACKGROUND

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a touch screen panel, and moreparticularly, to a touch screen device and a touch screen display deviceusing the same.

2. Discussion of the Related Art

A touch screen is a type of input device that is included in displaydevices such as liquid crystal display (LCD) devices, field emissiondisplays (FEDs), plasma display panels (PDPs), electroluminescentdisplays (ELDs), and electrophoretic displays (EPDs), and enables a userto input information by directly touching a screen with a finger, a penor the like while looking at the screen of the display device.

A touch screen is divided into a plurality of touch driving areas and aplurality of touch sensing areas, and a mutual capacitance is generatedbetween the touch driving areas and the touch sensing areas. Therefore,whether there is a touch is determined by measuring an amount of changein a mutual capacitance based on the touch.

In a case where a touch is detected by a mutual capacitance type touchscreen, since a size of a touch pattern is small formed for recognizinga touch of a pen in which a touched area is narrow. As the number oftouch channels increases, a driving time and power consumption fordriving the touch channels increase for detecting a finger touch and apen touch.

SUMMARY

Accordingly, the present invention is directed to provide a touch screendevice and a touch screen display device using the same thatsubstantially obviate one or more problems due to limitations anddisadvantages of the related art.

An aspect of the present invention is directed to provide a touch screendevice, a touch screen display device using the same, and a drivingmethod thereof, which perform a finger touch driving operation with lowpower unlike a pen touch driving operation, thereby reducing consumptionpower.

Additional advantages and features of the invention will be set forth inpart in the description which follows and in part will become apparentto those having ordinary skill in the art upon examination of thefollowing or may be learned from practice of the invention. Theobjectives and other advantages of the invention may be realized andattained by the structure particularly pointed out in the writtendescription and claims hereof as well as the appended drawings.

To achieve these and other advantages and in accordance with the purposeof the invention, as embodied and broadly described herein, there isprovided a touch screen device including: a touch screen panelconfigured to include a plurality of driving electrodes, which aredisposed in parallel in a first direction, and a plurality of sensingelectrodes which are disposed in parallel in a second direction; and atouch circuit unit configured to, when a touch type of a previous touchsensing period is a finger touch, sequentially apply a driving pulse toa plurality of second driving electrodes but not to a plurality of firstdriving electrodes among the plurality of driving electrodes, andreceive a plurality of sensing signals based on the driving pulse fromthe plurality of sensing electrodes.

In another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a methodof driving a touch screen device, including a touch circuit unit and atouch screen panel, the touch screen panel including a plurality ofdriving electrodes, which are disposed in parallel in a first directionand a plurality of sensing electrodes which are disposed in parallel ina second direction, the method including: when a touch type of aprevious touch sensing period is a finger touch, sequentially applying adriving pulse to a plurality of second driving electrodes but not to aplurality of first driving electrodes among the plurality of drivingelectrodes; and receiving a plurality of sensing signals based on thedriving pulse applied to the plurality of second driving electrodes.

It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description andthe following detailed description of the present invention areexemplary and explanatory and are intended to provide furtherexplanation of the invention as claimed.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings, which are included to provide a furtherunderstanding of the invention and are incorporated in and constitute apart of this application, illustrate embodiments of the invention andtogether with the description serve to explain the principle of theinvention. In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a diagram schematically illustrating an example of aconfiguration of a touch screen device according to embodiments of thepresent invention;

FIG. 2 is a diagram for describing a driving pulse applied to a drivingelectrode of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of a method of sensing atouch in a finger mode illustrated in FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of a method of sensing atouch in a pen mode illustrated in FIG. 2;

FIGS. 5 to 7 are diagrams schematically illustrating examples of a touchscreen display device according to embodiments of the present invention;and

FIGS. 8 and 9 are timing diagrams showing examples of a method ofdriving a touch screen display device according to embodiments of thepresent invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Reference will now be made in detail to the exemplary embodiments of thepresent invention, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanyingdrawings. Wherever possible, the same reference numbers will be usedthroughout the drawings to refer to the same or like parts.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described indetail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a diagram schematically illustrating an example of aconfiguration of a touch screen device according to embodiments of thepresent invention, and FIG. 2 is a diagram for describing a drivingpulse applied to a driving electrode of FIG. 1.

As illustrated in FIG. 1, a touch screen device 10 includes a touchscreen panel 100 and a touch circuit unit 200.

The touch screen panel 100 includes a plurality of driving electrodes112 and a plurality of sensing electrodes 114. The plurality of drivingelectrodes 112 are disposed in parallel in a first direction, and theplurality of sensing electrodes 114 are disposed in parallel in a seconddirection.

For example, as illustrated in FIG. 1, the plurality of drivingelectrodes 112 may be disposed in parallel in an x axis direction, andthe plurality of sensing electrodes 114 may be disposed in parallel in ay axis direction.

When a touch type of a previous touch sensing period is a finger touch,the touch circuit unit 200 sequentially applies a driving pulse to aplurality of second driving electrodes but not to a plurality of firstdriving electrodes among the plurality of driving electrodes 112. Whenthe touch type of the previous touch sensing period is a pen touch, thetouch circuit unit 200 sequentially applies the driving pulse to all theplurality of driving electrodes 112, and receives a plurality of sensingsignals, based on the applied driving pulse, from the plurality ofsensing electrodes 114.

For example, as illustrated in FIG. 2, a related art driving methodapplies the driving pulse to all the driving electrodes withoutdistinguishing between a finger mode in which a finger touch is sensedand a pen mode in which a pen touch is sensed. However, a driving methodaccording to an embodiment of the present invention may apply thedriving pulse to some driving electrodes (for example, odd-numbereddriving electrodes) when a touch type of a previous touch sensing periodis detected as the finger touch. In this case, because the driving pulseis applied to some driving electrodes instead of all the drivingelectrodes, a touch driving time is shortened, and thus, a touchresponse time (A/2 ms) according to an embodiment of the presentinvention is shorter than a touch response time (A ms) of the relatedart driving method.

Moreover, when a touch type of a previous touch sensing period isrecognized as the pen touch, the pen touch is precisely sensed byapplying the driving pulse to all the driving electrodes.

In other words, unlike the related art driving method that applies thesame method for sensing the finger touch or the pen touch, the fingermode or the pen mode is selectively driven based on a touch type of aprevious touch sensing period. In the finger mode, the driving pulse isapplied to some driving electrodes, and thus, low power driving can beperformed. Also, in the finger mode, a touch response time is shortened,and thus, a touch response speed can increase.

To this end, as illustrated in FIG. 1, the touch circuit unit 200includes a driver 210 and a sensing unit 220.

When a touch type of a previous touch sensing period is the fingertouch, the driver 210 may sequentially apply the driving pulse toodd-numbered driving electrodes TX#1, TX#3, . . . , and TX#m (which aresecond driving electrodes) but not to even-numbered driving electrodesTX#2, TX#4, . . . , and TX#m-1 (which are first driving electrodes)among a plurality of driving electrodes TX#1, TX#2, . . . , and TX#m(where m is an odd number).

Alternatively, when the touch type of the previous touch sensing periodis the finger touch, the driver 210 may sequentially apply the drivingpulse to the even-numbered driving electrodes TX#2, TX#4, . . . , andTX#m-1 (which are second driving electrodes) but not to the odd-numbereddriving electrodes TX#1, TX#3, . . . , and TX#m (which are first drivingelectrodes) among the plurality of driving electrodes TX#1, TX#2, . . ., and TX#m.

Moreover, when the touch type of the previous touch sensing period isthe finger touch, the driver 210 may sequentially apply the drivingpulse to a plurality of second driving electrodes but not to a pluralityof first driving electrodes (which are at least two electrodes) disposedbetween the plurality of second driving electrodes among the pluralityof driving electrodes TX#1, TX#2, . . . , and TX#m.

When a touch type detected based on the driving pulse sequentiallyapplied to the plurality of second driving electrodes is the fingertouch, the driver 210 may sequentially apply the driving pulse to aplurality of first driving electrodes but not to the plurality of seconddriving electrodes in a next touch sensing period.

In other words, when a touch type of a current touch sensing period isthe finger touch, the driver 210 may apply the driving pulse to adriving electrode (to which the driving pulse is not applied in thecurrent touch sensing period) in a next touch sensing period, and thus,the driving electrodes may be alternately driven.

The sensing unit 220 may calculate interpolation data of a plurality ofsensing signals corresponding to a plurality of first driving electrodesby using raw data of a plurality of sensing signals corresponding to aplurality of second driving electrodes. The sensing unit 220 may extracttouch coordinates by using the raw data of the sensing signalscorresponding to the plurality of second driving electrodes withoutcalculating the interpolation data.

For example, interpolation data may be calculated by interpolating rawdata corresponding to a plurality of second driving electrodes adjacentto a plurality of first driving electrodes.

Hereinafter, a finger mode driving method and a pen mode driving methodof a touch screen device according to embodiments of the presentinvention will be described in detail with reference to FIGS. 3 and 4.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of a method of sensing atouch in a finger mode illustrated in FIG. 2, and FIG. 4 is a diagramillustrating an example of a method of sensing a touch in a pen modeillustrated in FIG. 2.

For convenience of a description, FIGS. 3 and 4 illustrate touchelectrodes having a diamond shape, but the present invention is notlimited thereto. A number of touch electrodes having various shapes andsizes may be formed depending on a change of a design.

In the finger mode, as illustrated in FIG. 3, when the driving pulse isapplied to odd-numbered driving electrodes TX#1, TX#3 and TX#5 (whichare second driving electrodes) for sensing the finger touch in S301, rawdata of sensing signals based on the driving pulse applied to theodd-numbered driving electrodes may be calculated in S302, a pluralityof sensing signals corresponding to a plurality of second drivingelectrodes to which the driving pulse is not applied may be calculatedby interpolating raw data of a plurality of sensing signalscorresponding to a plurality of adjacent first driving electrodes inS303. For example, interpolation data corresponding to the plurality ofsecond driving electrodes to which the driving pulse is not applied maybe calculated by interpolating each data by using raw data of theplurality of adjacent driving electrodes. Finally, touch coordinates inthe finger mode may be calculated by using raw data and interpolationdata in S304. In one embodiment, touch coordinates may be extracted byusing only raw data of the plurality of sensing signals corresponding tothe plurality of first driving electrodes.

In the pen mode, as illustrated in FIG. 4, when the driving pulse isapplied to all the driving electrodes for sensing the pen touch in S401,raw data of a pen-touched point may be calculated in S402, and touchcoordinates in the pen mode may be extracted by using the calculated rawdata in S403. In one embodiment, touch coordinates in the finger modemay be extracted by using interpolation data.

Therefore, the touch screen device according to embodiments of thepresent invention separately performs a finger touch sensing operationand a pen touch sensing operation, and does not apply the driving pulseto all the driving electrodes but applies the driving pulse to somedriving electrodes. Accordingly, a load applied to the touch panel isreduced, thereby decreasing power consumption.

The above-described touch screen device 10 according to embodiments ofthe present invention may be coupled to various types of display panelsto configure a touch screen display device.

Hereinafter, a touch screen display device according to embodiments ofthe present invention will be described in detail with reference to thedrawing.

FIGS. 5 to 7 are diagrams schematically illustrating examples of a touchscreen display device according to embodiments of the present invention.

A case in which a display panel 20 illustrated in FIGS. 5 to 7 isapplied to an LCD device will be described as an example, but thepresent invention is not limited thereto. The display panel 20 may beapplied to various display devices such as field emission displays(FEDs), plasma display panels (PDPs), electroluminescent displays(ELDs), and electrophoretic displays (EPDs). A general configuration ofthe LCD device is not described for the sake of brevity.

In a touch screen display device 1 according to embodiments of thepresent invention, as illustrated in FIG. 5, a touch screen panel 100 ofthe touch screen device 10 may be disposed on an upper polarizer POL1 ofthe display panel 20, or as illustrated in FIG. 6, the touch screenpanel 100 of the touch screen device 10 may be disposed between theupper polarizer POL1 and an upper substrate GLS1 of the display panel20. Alternatively, as illustrated in FIG. 7, the touch screen panel 100of the touch screen device 10 may be built into the display panel 20.Here, GLS2 refers to a lower substrate, and POL2 refers to a lowerpolarizer.

At least one of a plurality of driving electrodes and a plurality ofsensing electrodes included in the touch screen panel 100 of FIG. 7 mayperform a function of a touch electrode and a function of a commonelectrode.

For example, when the plurality of driving electrodes perform thefunction of the touch electrode and the function of the commonelectrode, the plurality of sensing electrodes may perform the functionof the touch electrode. For another example, when the plurality ofsensing electrodes perform the function of the touch electrode and thefunction of the common electrode, the plurality of driving electrodesmay perform the function of the touch electrode. Also, the plurality ofdriving electrodes and the plurality of sensing electrodes may allperform the function of the touch electrode and the function of thecommon electrode.

Hereinafter, a method of driving a touch screen display device accordingto embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail withreference to the drawing.

FIGS. 8 and 9 are timing diagrams showing examples of a method ofdriving a touch screen display device according to embodiments of thepresent invention.

A timing diagram of FIG. 8 may correspond to a timing diagram of thetouch screen display device illustrated in FIGS. 5 and 6, and a timingdiagram of FIG. 9 may correspond to a timing diagram of the touch screendisplay device illustrated in FIG. 7.

A touch screen display device according to the timing diagram of FIG. 8determines whether there is a touch, separately from driving of thedisplay panel. When a touch type of a previous touch sensing period isrecognized as the pen touch, the touch screen display device operates inthe pen mode where the driving pulse is sequentially applied to aplurality of driving electrodes TX#1, TX#2, . . . , and TX#m. When thetouch type of the previous touch sensing period is recognized as thefinger touch, the touch screen display device operates in the fingermode where the driving pulse is sequentially applied to odd-numbereddriving electrodes TX#1, TX#3, . . . , and TX#m but not to even-numbereddriving electrodes TX#2, TX#4, TX#m-1 among the plurality of drivingelectrodes TX#1, TX#2, . . . , and TX#m. Therefore, in the finger mode,a touch response time is shortened, and thus, a touch response speed canbe increased.

In a touch screen display device according to the timing diagram of FIG.9, a display panel is built into a touch screen panel, and thus, adisplay driving operation and a touch driving operation may betemporally divided for different frames.

In touch driving, similarly to FIG. 8, when a touch type of a previoustouch sensing period is recognized as the pen touch, the touch screendisplay device operates in the pen mode where the driving pulse issequentially applied to a plurality of driving electrodes TX#1, TX#2, .. . , and TX#m. When the touch type of the previous touch sensing periodis recognized as the finger touch, the touch screen display deviceoperates in the finger mode where the driving pulse is sequentiallyapplied to odd-numbered driving electrodes TX#1, TX#3, . . . , and TX#mbut not to even-numbered driving electrodes TX#2, TX#4, TX#m-1 among theplurality of driving electrodes TX#1, TX#2, . . . , and TX#m. When atouch type recognized in touch driving is the finger touch, a touch iscontinuously sensed in the finger mode, but when the touch type is thepen touch, a touch may be sensed in the pen mode in touch driving of anext frame. As a result, when a touch is sensed in the finger mode, thedriving pulse is applied to some driving electrodes, and thus, powerconsumption and a touch response time are reduced. Accordingly, a touchresponse speed can be increased.

The timing diagram of FIG. 9 shows that each of display driving andtouch driving is performed once in each frame, but the present inventionis not limited thereto. In another embodiment, display driving and touchdriving may be alternately performed in each frame. Also, in this case,a display driving frequency may be adjusted to 60 Hz, 120 Hz, 240 Hz, ormore according to the number and time of display driving, and a touchreport rate may be adjusted to 60 Hz, 100 Hz, or more according to thenumber and time of touch driving.

Therefore, the touch screen device according to embodiments of thepresent invention separately performs a finger touch sensing operationand a pen touch sensing operation, and does not apply the driving pulseto all the driving electrodes but applies the driving pulse to somedriving electrodes. Accordingly, a load applied to the touch panel isreduced, thereby decreasing power consumption.

According to the embodiments of the present invention, since a fingertouch sensing operation and a pen touch sensing operation are performedseparately from each other, the driving pulse is not applied to all thedriving electrodes but is applied to some driving electrodes, and thus,a load applied to the touch panel is reduced, thereby decreasing powerconsumption.

It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that variousmodifications and variations can be made in the present inventionwithout departing from the spirit or scope of the inventions. Thus, itis intended that the present invention covers the modifications andvariations of this invention provided they come within the scope of theappended claims and their equivalents.

1. A touch screen device comprising: a touch screen panel including aplurality of touch electrodes; and a touch circuit unit configured to:during a first touch sensing period for sensing a first touch, (i) applya first driving pulse to the plurality of touch electrodes, and (ii)receive a first plurality of sensing signals responsive to the firstdriving pulse applied to the plurality of touch electrodes during thefirst touch sensing period, and during a second touch sensing period forsensing a second touch, (i) apply a second driving pulse to a firstsubset of the plurality of touch electrodes but not to a second subsetof the plurality of driving electrodes, and (ii) receive a secondplurality of sensing signals responsive to the second driving pulseapplied to the first subset of the plurality of touch electrodes but notto the second subset of the plurality of touch electrodes during thesecond touch sensing period.
 2. The touch screen device of claim 1,wherein the touch screen panel further includes a plurality of othertouch electrodes, the plurality of touch electrodes are disposed inparallel in a first direction, the plurality of other touch electrodesare disposed in parallel in a second direction, the first plurality ofsensing signals are received from the plurality of other touchelectrodes, and the second plurality of sensing signals are receivedfrom the plurality of other touch electrodes.
 3. The touch screen deviceof claim 1, wherein a touch electrode of the first subset of theplurality of touch electrodes and a touch electrode of the second subsetof the plurality of touch electrodes are alternately disposed in thetouch screen panel in a second direction.
 4. The touch screen device ofclaim 1, wherein at least two of the second subset of the plurality oftouch electrodes are disposed between adjacent ones of the first subsetof the plurality of touch electrodes.
 5. The touch screen device ofclaim 1, wherein at least two of the first subset of the plurality oftouch electrodes are disposed between adjacent ones of the second subsetof the plurality of touch electrodes.
 6. The touch screen device ofclaim 1, wherein the touch circuit unit is further configured to, duringa third touch sensing period for sensing the second touch, apply a thirddriving pulse to the second subset of the plurality of touch electrodesbut not to the first subset of the plurality of touch electrodes.
 7. Thetouch screen device of claim 1, wherein the touch circuit unit isfurther configured to calculate interpolation data of a plurality ofsensing signals corresponding to the second subset of the plurality oftouch electrodes by using raw data of a plurality of sensing signalscorresponding to the first subset of the plurality of touch electrodes.8. The touch screen device of claim 7, wherein the interpolation data iscalculated by interpolating the raw data corresponding to the firstsubset of the plurality of touch electrodes which are respectivelyadjacent to the second subset of the plurality of touch electrodes.
 9. Atouch screen display device comprising: the touch screen device of claim1; and a display panel disposed on the touch screen panel of the touchscreen device.
 10. A touch screen display device comprising: the touchscreen device of claim 1; and a display panel into which the touchscreen panel of the touch screen device is built, wherein at least oneof the plurality of touch electrodes performs a function of a touchelectrode and a function of a common electrode.
 11. A method of drivinga touch screen device, including a touch circuit unit and a touch screenpanel, the touch screen panel including a plurality of touch electrodes,the method comprising: during a first touch sensing period for sensing afirst touch, (i) applying a first driving pulse to the plurality oftouch electrodes, and (ii) receiving a first plurality of sensingsignals responsive to the first driving pulse applied to the pluralityof touch electrodes during the first touch sensing period; and during asecond touch sensing period for sensing a second touch, (i) applying asecond driving pulse to a first subset of the plurality of touchelectrodes but not to a second subset of the plurality of touchelectrodes, and (ii) receiving a second plurality of sensing signalsresponsive to the second driving pulse applied to the first subset ofthe plurality of touch electrodes but not to the second subset of theplurality of touch electrodes during the second touch sensing period.12. The method of claim 11, wherein the touch screen panel furtherincludes a plurality of other touch electrodes, the plurality of touchelectrodes are disposed in parallel in a first direction, the pluralityof other touch electrodes are disposed in parallel in a seconddirection, the first plurality of sensing signals are received from theplurality of other touch electrodes, and the second plurality of sensingsignals are received from the plurality of other touch electrodes. 13.The method of claim 11, further comprising: during a third touch sensingperiod for sensing the second touch, applying a third driving pulse tothe second subset of the plurality of touch electrodes but not to thefirst subset of the plurality of touch electrodes.
 14. The method ofclaim 11, further comprising: calculating interpolation data of aplurality of sensing signals corresponding to the second subset of theplurality of touch electrodes by using raw data of a plurality ofsensing signals corresponding to the first subset of the plurality oftouch electrodes.
 15. The method of claim 14, wherein the interpolationdata is calculated by interpolating the raw data corresponding to thefirst subset of the plurality of touch electrodes which are respectivelyadjacent to the second subset of the plurality of touch electrodes. 16.The touch screen device of claim 1, wherein the first touch sensingperiod and the second touch sensing period are not overlapping.
 17. Thetouch screen device of claim 1, wherein the first driving pulse is asame signal as the second driving pulse.